Lost my first calf

[Judge Sharpe]

I just lost the first calf since I have been in operation. He looked normal at birth, ran and played with the other calves, was not too shy. The other calves soon started to out grow him, but he remained active and looked in good condition. At five months he began to lay down often, seemed to recover, got down and would not get up and I called the vet. Vet said malnutrition, he was not getting enough to eat. Next day he was dead. Up until the last, he looked in pretty good condition. Mother was a two year old hiefer, first calf. She either did not make enough milk for him to grow and prosper on, or would not let him nurse enough.
I bought her an Angus Association sale, papers looked good to me. She was a little wilder and more skidish than any of my others, and liked my neighbors pasture better than mine. She has stayed home recently.
She is in calf again this spring, I think.
What would you guys do?
1. Sell her to get her off the place? I would not want to sell her as a brood cow with papers because I don't want to get a bad reputation around here for selling culls as good breeders so she would go to the general sale with a warning.
2.Put her up and put her in the freezer? If she is with calf?
3.Leave her alone and see if she does a better job of raising another calf?
First thought was to shoot her and drop in a big hole since she wanders off and can't or won't feed her calf.
She did not have any trouble birthing, so I thought I was ahead of the game.
I have good grass so far this year so it is basicly not costing me to keep her.
Thanks for any advise.
Bill Brower

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

You've given yourself lots of choices . . . . I guess, my first question would be, "Did she seem to be mothering the calf, and was he nursing? Were you able to observe what was happening between them?"

 

[LRTX1]

I think there may be more to it. If he looked to be in good condition chances are it might not have been malnutrion. At 5 months he should have been able to fend for himself enough to stay alive, regardless of how his mother milked. Calves get weaned off earlier than that and handle it all the time, might be a little potty but they manage to survive.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I think there may be more to it. If he looked to be in good condition chances are it might not have been malnutrion. At 5 months he should have been able to fend for himself enough to stay alive, regardless of how his mother milked. Calves get weaned off earlier than that and handle it all the time, might be a little potty but they manage to survive.

I missed that -- 5 mos. Yeah, there's more to look at.

 

[andrews29]

5 months it should be ok with out mom

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Thanks, that confirms what i was thinking before the vet came. The calf's condition was, to me, good until about a week before he died. The vet was not one i usually use, but was the on call vet that weekend. He gave the calf $100.00 worth of meds, not sure what they were. The little guy was dead the next morning. the rest of the new claves are doing great and putting on weight and are active. I think I wasted a vet call, maybe I should have called a couple of days earlier.
Bill Brower

 

[Victoria]

This is a total guess but what came to mind was that maybe the calf had a problem with his rumen. You said that the other calves started to outperform him, the vet said he was malnourished and his age at 5 months made me think of that. If the malnourishment came from lack of milk then the calf would have been doing more poorly when it was younger and improved with age as the rumen developed enough to eat grass/hay. On the other hand if it was a problem with his rumen he would have done better when young and progressively gotten worse as he got older and wanted to eat grass/hay. By 4 months the rumen is taking up about 75% of the stomach. If he did have a problem with his rumen - especially if it didn't flow properly and he felt full he wouldn't eat as much milk either and that would compound the problem. I could be way off base - just thinking out loud here...

 

[agmantoo]

You do know what the student in the graduating veterinary class with the lowest grades is called don't you? Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I thought the answer to that one was "dentist", agmantoo.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

sorry to here about it.If he had not got enugh he would have been dead at 2 months. keep her let her calve again see how she does if no better wean the calf and sell her open. i am the same way i wont sell a bred cow if i know she is not good.

 

[Chris H]

Without seeing your cattle, I'd be reluctant to second guess your vet. Since you are very new to raising cattle(this is your first loss), you may not have realized how thin the calf was. I've seen some poorer doing calves have big guts because they didn't have enough milk and relied on forage, and the owner didn't realize how thin the calf was.

Was the mama cow going to the neighbor because there wasn't enough to eat at home? How is her condition now, can you see her backbone, ribs, or does she have good flesh over those areas and filled out over the hooks? *I will say one of our fatter cows is fat because she doesn't milk as well as others, so that's not always a good indication if she's milking well or not.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Drawing from experience I would say heart defect.
Some defects can manifest themselves early on, with a quick death. Some can take months and even a year, even years depending on the severity. This depends on activity.
At 5 months, heart defects can manifest themselves with not growing proper, not as active, always lagging behind the rest of the herd, slow and lethargic. The added weight gain can slow them down.

We have had about 4 in the last few years
Recent ones were as two young babies. 1 died within two weeks of birth, just up and keeled over, no signs. Post op showed a deformed heart and enlarged liver. The other lived about 4 weeks, just not lively, slow on sucking at all times, few sucks and then lay down. No playing with other calves, always sleeping. Took this one to the vet and he showed me when you can actually see the pulse in the neck from the artery, a sign of heart trouble

My experience says heart troubles, but with out seeing...a shot in the dark

 

[Caustic Burno]

I just lost the first calf since I have been in operation. He looked normal at birth, ran and played with the other calves, was not too shy. The other calves soon started to out grow him, but he remained active and looked in good condition. At five months he began to lay down often, seemed to recover, got down and would not get up and I called the vet. Vet said malnutrition, he was not getting enough to eat. Next day he was dead. Up until the last, he looked in pretty good condition. Mother was a two year old hiefer, first calf. She either did not make enough milk for him to grow and prosper on, or would not let him nurse enough.
I bought her an Angus Association sale, papers looked good to me. She was a little wilder and more skidish than any of my others, and liked my neighbors pasture better than mine. She has stayed home recently.
She is in calf again this spring, I think.
What would you guys do?
1. Sell her to get her off the place? I would not want to sell her as a brood cow with papers because I don't want to get a bad reputation around here for selling culls as good breeders so she would go to the general sale with a warning.
2.Put her up and put her in the freezer? If she is with calf?
3.Leave her alone and see if she does a better job of raising another calf?
First thought was to shoot her and drop in a big hole since she wanders off and can't or won't feed her calf.
She did not have any trouble birthing, so I thought I was ahead of the game.
I have good grass so far this year so it is basicly not costing me to keep her.
Thanks for any advise.
Bill Brower

If this is her first bad calf I would give her a second chance, there a lot of things that can go wrong.
I have an old girl that has more money for me than any other cow that has had a pile of calves.
I am fighting with a calf that is not thriving and can't really find the reason other than he goes to the vet tomorrow.
We are not getting rid of the cow because of one bad calf. Now on a medicore cow I would haul her, life is to short to mess with a bad cow.

 

[Taurus]

I just lost the first calf since I have been in operation. He looked normal at birth, ran and played with the other calves, was not too shy. The other calves soon started to out grow him, but he remained active and looked in good condition. At five months he began to lay down often, seemed to recover, got down and would not get up and I called the vet. Vet said malnutrition, he was not getting enough to eat. Next day he was dead. Up until the last, he looked in pretty good condition. Mother was a two year old hiefer, first calf. She either did not make enough milk for him to grow and prosper on, or would not let him nurse enough.
I bought her an Angus Association sale, papers looked good to me. She was a little wilder and more skidish than any of my others, and liked my neighbors pasture better than mine. She has stayed home recently.
She is in calf again this spring, I think.
What would you guys do?
1. Sell her to get her off the place? I would not want to sell her as a brood cow with papers because I don't want to get a bad reputation around here for selling culls as good breeders so she would go to the general sale with a warning.
2.Put her up and put her in the freezer? If she is with calf?
3.Leave her alone and see if she does a better job of raising another calf?
First thought was to shoot her and drop in a big hole since she wanders off and can't or won't feed her calf.
She did not have any trouble birthing, so I thought I was ahead of the game.
I have good grass so far this year so it is basicly not costing me to keep her.
Thanks for any advise.
Bill Brower

If this is her first bad calf I would give her a second chance, there a lot of things that can go wrong.
I have an old girl that has more money for me than any other cow that has had a pile of calves.
I am fighting with a calf that is not thriving and can't really find the reason other than he goes to the vet tomorrow.
We are not getting rid of the cow because of one bad calf. Now on a medicore cow I would haul her, life is to short to mess with a bad cow.

The calf is a 5 months old....that is when the problems appeared.